A Reason To Believe
by grab.your.gats
Summary: I'm incapable of writing summaries. If you love Seth Clearwater as much as I do then you'll probably enjoy this story. Rated M for language and maybe a little more in the future. Read and review. BREAKING DAWN SPOILERS!
1. Chapter 1

**All right, here it goes. This is the first chapter of my first attempted Twilight story. I'm actually pretty proud of this, but I crave your opinion. Say nice things to me in the reviews. This story takes place around 2 years after Breaking Dawn left off, by the way.**

**Note: This story could change at any time. Normally I don't post until I'm finished with the whole story, but I decided to try something different. Just keep in mind that you might not read the same story next week.**

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The deserted playgroud at Forks Elementary School was the only place in the whole town that held any allure for me. I sat on a swing, dragging my shoes through the damp gravel. It was overcast and raining, but I didn't particularly care. The playground was familiar, comforting. No matter where I was forced to pick up and move to, I could always find a playground that looked the same as the last.

I sighed, pumping my legs a few times to make the swing move. There was no use complaining about how much my mom moved us around. She wouldn't change, and that was that. I dragged my feet through the gravel again to make the swing stop. The rain had soaked me through by now, making my black skinny jeans feel uncomfortably damp and loose. I couldn't help but smile. I liked the rain. Forks, Washington was growing on me, no matter how much I didn't want it to. I felt a twinge of sadness. It would be that much harder to leave.

"Aren't you a little old to be playing here?" a female voice asked. I looked up and saw an older woman walking towards me, holding her grandson by the hand. Not even the rain slowed down daily life in this town.

"You're never too old to swing," I told her, smiling a little. She glared at me. With a blush, I realized that she wanted me to leave. Most people didn't want me around their kids. It was something about the way I dressed. I put my hands in my pockets to keep from making some offensive gesture at the woman, hopped off the swing, and made my way off the playground.

I decided to walk to the gas station a mile down the road. The rain and wind picked up at exactly the same time, and I zipped up my thin black hoodie. The October weather was feeling more like February. I took a deep breath and started to run. I felt a little silly, but it was a straight shot through nothing but suburbs to the gas station and I needed to exercise more. My goal was to walk/run at least two miles a day. Some days were better than others.

I was just setting a good pace when a car pulled up beside me. A police cruiser, to be more exact. I turned to look at it with a raised eyebrow, slowing my run until I stopped. The window rolled down. The officer inside smiled at me.

"Where you headed?"

"Gas station," I muttered, teeth chattering.

"To put some gas in that car of yours?" He laughed at his own joke, and I smiled just to humor him. He unlocked the doors. "Hop in, sweetie. I'll drive you there."

I climbed into the police cruiser, feeling awkward but feeling dry. I slammed the door shut and we started to drive. I wrung my hair out, trying to get most of the water on the floor instead of on his seats.

"How long have you been out there?" he asked. I shrugged.

"Two or three hours. Thanks for the ride...?"

"I'm Charlie. Sheriff, if you must. What's your name?"

"Valencia." I said my name with distaste. I prefered being called Vallie, but adults never seemed quite comfortable with it. Charlie smiled.

"You sound just like my daughter. Her name's Isabella. She hates it."

We drove the rest of the way in near silence, the only sounds coming from the police scanner on the dashboard and the rain pelting the windshield. Charlie pulled up to the front doors of the 7-11. I was a little embarassed now. There were people my age inside. I opened the door of the cruiser.

"Thanks, Charlie."

"You're welcome, kiddo. Stay out of trouble." An emergency came over the police scanner and I shuffled out of the car. He waved at me and sped out of the parking lot, turning the lights and siren on. I waited until he was out of sight to go inside.

I browsed the shelves until I was at the back of the store by the refridgerators. I nearly screamed in happiness when I discovered my favorite flavor of Monster. The other kids in the gas station watched me with interest, hiding their eyes behind magazines or looking away when I looked at them. I made it to the counter and set my drink upon it.

"This it?" the woman behind the counter asked, sounding sleepy. I nodded, handing her two dollars.

"Are you guys hiring?" I asked. She smiled slightly, handing me my change.

"Fill out the application and I can probably give you two nights a week." She reached under the counter and handed me a short application. I folded it and stuck it in the pocket of my jeans. The other teenagers in the store were still watching me. I sighed. It was going to be a blast starting school on Monday.

"Thanks," I muttered, putting my hood up to cover the frizzy mess that was my dark brown hair. I cracked open my Monster and took a long sip on the way out. I could hear the kids start talking about me before the door slammed shut.

It was obvious that the town of Forks had never seen anything like me. I guess I was a bit of a culture shock. They all looked at my skinny jeans, band shirts, and Converse with wonder. I felt sort of like an alien life form in this town. The girls that I had seen so far didn't have hair like mine, poofy, choppy, long, and short all at the same time, and they looked at it with distaste. I could tell that they thought I was crazy for having a hoop in my nose and nine ear piercings. No one in Forks knew about the "scene". Being the person responsible for introducing it to them wasn't fun.

"Aw, fuck my life," I muttered when the rain became an all-out downpour. Scowling, I crushed my empty Monster can and tossed it in someone's recycling bin. I was halfway home. Sighing, I hugged myself to drive out the cold.

I heard the motorcycle before I saw it, and the next few things seemed to happen in slow motion. I looked over at the boy driving it and he looked back at me. His face took on a strange expression and his eyes widened. His eyes were locked on me, but his bike wasn't quite so motionless. It drifted to the other side of the road, right into the path of an oncoming car. I must have yelled something, because he jerked the bike back into his own lane at the last possible second, but the sudden movement cost him his balance. The front tire lost traction on the slick road, the back tire hit the curb, and the boy flew off and landed face-down on the pavement.

Time sped up again and the first words out of my mouth were the very appropriate, "Holy fuck!" I ran forward, stopping quickly at the bike to rip the keys out of the ignition. The bike stopped moving and sputtering at once. I dropped to my knees beside the boy.

"Oh my God, dude! Oh my God, sit up! Can you sit up? Oh my God, are you okay? Please be okay." These words all came out in a terrified rush as I helped him sit up. It was even worse when I could see his face. He was bleeding profusely from a long deep cut in his hairline. I ripped my jacket off, ignoring the cold, and pressed it to the cut. He was covered in bruises and cuts, and the left side of his face looked like it had been dragged across a bed of rocks.

"Do you have a cell?" I demanded, almost to the point of hysteria. He didn't answer me. He was too busy staring at me with that same strange expression. I began searching his person for a phone, not caring where my hands traveled. It wasn't in any of his coat pockets, and he hardly even winced when I discovered two broken ribs on the way down to his pants pockets. I couldn't bring myself to stop and think about how abnormally warm he felt to my cold fingers. I finally found a cell phone in his right pants pocket.

"Fuck... nine-one-one," I muttered hysterically while I tried to dial the right numbers. Finally it began to ring.

"Police, Charlie Swan speaking. What is your emergen-"

"Charlie! Charlie, t-this is Valencia! Oh my G-God, this guy just c-crashed and he's b-bleeding, and-"

"What's your location?" Charlie asked calmly. I wildly looked around for a street sign.

"W-Walton street, in f-front of t-the red h-house, hurry!" I begged into the phone. Charlie had hung up when he had the location. I put the phone in the pocket of my own pants and took off my shirt, leaving me in only a tight pink tank top. I began to wipe off his face with my t-shirt, concentrating only on taking deep breaths and calming down. He winced as I ran over cuts and scrapes with my shirt, but didn't take his eyes off my face.

"Help is coming, Charlie's coming, it's okay," I assured him, but my voice cracked. I was the one who needed the comfort. He slowly reached up and put his hand on my shoulder. I should have been shocked at his temperature, but it was the farthest thing from my mind.

"It's okay," he said very quietly, and I instantly felt relaxation flood through my body. I nodded.

"It's okay," I repeated, hanging my head and simply focusing on breathing for a moment. I finally brought my eyes up to his again. "What's your name?"

"Seth," he muttered, still quiet. He closed his eyes and moaned in pain, letting his hand drop from my shoulder. I took his hand and squeezed it.

"Help's coming, hang on," I whispered, though I doubt he heard me through the still-pouring rain. I wildly searched the street on either side of me until, after what seemed like an eternity, I saw the flashing lights of the police cruiser.

"Jesus H. Christ," Charlie said, nearly falling in his haste to get out of the car. Together we helped Seth stand up and put him into the back seat. I sat down beside him, still holding my jacket to his bleeding cut. Charlie badgered me with questions but I could only managed clipped responses. I looked at my face in the rear-veiw mirror. I was whiter than a ghost. Seth leaned his head on my shoulder and I found myself unable to say another word.

I studied Seth while we drove, glad his eyes were closed. At least he wouldn't find my staring creepy. He was native, obviously from the Quileute reservation a dozen miles outside of Forks. His hair framed his face perfectly, even when it was wet, flipping slightly at the ends in a million different directions. He had a thin handsome face, with a prominent chin, high cheekbones, and long eyelashes. He had to be at least six-feet five-inches tall, with a thin build and subtle muscles. If not for the boyish aura he gave off, I would have assumed he was in his early twenties. He was so... big.

"We're here, Valencia," Charlie said. I hadn't realized the car was no longer moving. I made sure that Seth could push his legs out the car door, then ran around to help Charlie pull him out. We supported him on our shoulders all the way inside. He could walk, but I could tell it was painful for him.

We reached the ER and were quickly approached by a very pale, very handsome doctor. He had the most perfect blond hair and golden eyes I had ever seen. He gave me a quick smile before turning his attention to Seth.

"What happened?"

Charlie explained to the handsome doctor what happened. I wasn't listening. I was cleaning the last of the blood off Seth's face, fighting off the urge to give him a hug. His eyes would lock with mine every time I looked at him. Nervous, I continued to look at his lips or my feet.

"Valencia, I think you should call your parents," Charlie more ordered than requested. I must have still looked hysterical. Seth's eyes widened when Charlie said this. He looked absolutely terrified.

"Don't make her leave, Carlisle. Please," Seth begged the handsome doctor. A look of realization dawned on the latter's face and he patted Seth on the shoulder lightly.

"Don't worry, Seth. I'm sure you'll see this lovely girl again soon, but right now you're hurt and I need to do something about it."

Seth nodded, but looked pained. He looked at me again, as if his very life depended on me, and took my hand.

"Thank you," he said.

"Don't mention it," I said, blushing like mad. I put my hands in my pockets as they began to walk away, my fingers brushing against Seth's cell phone that I'd put there with my all-but-forgotten job application.

"Wait!" I ran forward to the group of three men, putting my number into Seth's contacts as I approached. I put the phone in the handsome doctor's hand.

"This is Seth's," I muttered. Then I looked at Seth. "Call me when you're feeling better, okay?"

A grin broke out across his bruised and bleeding face, and he nodded excitedly. I waved goodbye to him and, ignoring the fact that he still had my jacket and shirt, walked back to the reception desk to use the phone.

On the way home from the hospital, my mother and I stopped to pick up Seth's bike. We loaded it into the back of our Suburban, and when I found the keys I hooked them to my necklace as not to lose them. My mom didn't ask me many questions, and I was glad. I was too busy thinking to answer her. I could only think of the expression that had come to Seth's face when he first saw me.

It was like he'd seen the sun for the first time.

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**Let me know if I made any spelling mistakes or whatever. I'd love to change them for you.**

**Review please.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Don't hate me. I rewrote chapter 2, and here it is. I had this weird burning hate for the first version of the chapter, and I know that it wasn't my best work. I like this sooooo much better, and I hope you will too. Never fear, Chandele should make an appearance in a later chapter. Maybe even the next one. Who knows?**

**Enjoy :)**

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The hot water of the shower fought against the chill that had settled into my spine. I hugged myself, rubbing my arms to create some kind of friction. I was far too cold. It took me a few more moments to realize that it was because I'd grown used to Seth's abnormally warm skin. I closed my eyes. _Seth..._

I'd been trying to make sense of things since I'd left the hospital; the expression Seth had worn the split second before he'd crashed, the way he didn't even seem to feel the pain, and the look of complete horror that had crept onto his face when Charlie had told me to go home weren't normal. It was... _weird. _No one had ever crashed their motorcycle after one look at me. It wasn't like I was that pretty. I could understand someone going momentarily loopy over a hot chick in a white t-shirt walking through a rainstorm, but not over me. My confused mind couldn't put the pieces together.

I sighed and turned off the shower, groping around the curtain for one of our thicker towels. I was still freezing. It was like I couldn't shake it. Teeth nearly chattering, I made my way out of the bathroom and into my bedroom at the end of the hall.

"Here's some clean clothes," my mother said, walking into my room just as I had selected the warmest pair of pajamas I had from a dresser drawer. She set a laundry basket at the foot of my bed. "You called me right when I'd finished folding them."

"Thanks."

"Are you okay?" she asked quietly. I shrugged.

"I'm worried about him."

"He's fine, honey. Trust me, I've broken three ribs before." My mother had started picking up dirty clothes off my bedroom floor. I didn't even try telling her to stop.

"I know... It's just the way that he looked at me when Charlie told me to go home. He was so scared."

"Maybe doctors freak him out. A lot of people are like that. Hand me that shirt," she said, pointing to the black shirt that was barely visible underneath one of my pillows. I grabbed it and tossed it onto the pile of dirty clothes in her arms.

"Why would he be afraid of a doctor that he knows by name?" I more asked myself than my mother. She shrugged.

"I don't have all the answers, Valencia." She turned and left my room, calling from halfway down the hall, "Dinner's in the fridge if you're hungry."

I wasn't, but I had the feeling that I would be at midnight if I didn't eat now. After I was clothed, I slowly walked down the hall to the kitchen. My mom was tossing laundry into the washing machine in the small niche off the kitchen. My thirteen-year-old sister, Paxton, was watching some reality show in the livingroom. The corner of my lip turned down in a sort of pout. I envied how peaceful the two of them looked, how blank their minds must be.

"What's on?" I asked Paxton while I warmed up some fried rice in the microwave. I scowled at the little chunks of chicken in it. Being the only vegetarian in the family was annoying at times.

"Survivor."

"Did they run out of food and eat that annoying blond chick yet?"

"You're so gross," she muttered, not bothering to answer my question. I laughed quietly to myself and pulled my rice out of the microwave, scalding my hand on the hot bowl.

"Son of a bitch!" I muttered angrily. My mom clucked impatiently, but didn't say anything. I'd started swearing at the age of twelve, and she'd given up on trying to break me of the habit when I was fourteen. I sucked on the three fingers I'd burned while I looked for a pot holder.

"Paxton and I are going to Port Angeles for the day tomorrow," my mom informed me when I'd pulled the bowl out of the microwave and thrown it on the counter so it would cool down.

"Why?" I searched the cupboards for silverwear.

"I need to look for a job, and Paxton wants to go shopping. Did you want to go with us?" She filled up a laundry basket with clothes that had just finished drying and walked it over to the couch so she could fold them. I finally found a fork and began picking the chicken out of my rice.

"I'll pass. I kind of just want to chill before I start school."

"Suit yourself. We're leaving early and won't be back until late. You'll have to fend for yourself on dinner."

"I'll manage."

I stood in the kitchen, leaning against the counter while I scarfed down the rice without really tasting it. I was uncomfortably full after a few bites. Finally, I gave up and put the rest back in the fridge. It was barely eight o'clock when I said goodnight to my family and retreated to my bedroom.

I was still lying awake at midnight, thoughts buzzing like angry bees. _Seth, _they buzzed. _Seth, Seth, Seth. _I couldn't stop thinking about the boy no matter how hard I tried. I sighed, punching my pillow a few times to make it softer. Sleep just wouldn't come. Not when I had so much to think about.

_"So I'll keep dreamin'. Not another word, sweetheat. Nothing is perfect, but it has to be someday...," _Craig Owens sang, and I looked over at the cell phone on my bedside table that was blasting its Chiodos ringtone. For a long moment, I considered not answering. It was always a wrong number at midnight, but something got the best of me and I grabbed the phone. The number was unavailable. I pushed _talk. _

"Hello?"

"Hey, Valencia."

I pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at it for a second before asking, "Who is this?"

"Seth." He spoke quietly, like he was exhausted. I probably sounded the same way.

"Oh. Hey," I whispered. "How are you feeling?"

"Shitty," he said, but laughed a little. "How about you?"

"Cold."

We didn't talk for a few long moments. I could hear him breathing, and that was enough. A few times he sucked in a breath, as if he was about to say something, but never did.

"Why'd you call me at midnight?" I finally asked, breaking the overwhelming silence. He sighed.

"I... Um..."

"Is something wrong?" I asked. I couldn't fathom what it could be. We'd only been apart for six hours.

He hesitated before he said, "As weird as it sounds, I just wanted to hear your voice."

"Oh," I said, and I felt the corners of my lips tug up into a small smile.

"Do you want to hang out tomorrow?" he asked quickly, as if he wanted to get the question over with.

"Aren't you in a shitload of pain?"

"It's not so bad," he said, and by the way he acted before Charlie had shown up, I almost believed him.

"I can't really go anywhere tomorrow," I said, remembering my mother's plans to go to Port Angeles. I'm sure he could hear the sadness in my voice.

"Um... Can I come over there?" he asked softly, nervously.

"Yeah," I said, smiling again. I gave him my address. There were a few more moments of silence, his breathing the only sound. I coughed once, and it seemed to remind him that I was still there.

"I... Um... I guess I'll see you tomorrow. Is noon cool?" he asked.

"That's fine."

"I can't wait to see you," he whispered, and my cheeks flooded with warmth. Before I could answer, he said goodnight and hung up. I stared at my silent phone for several seconds, finally placing it back on my bedside table when I realized how exhausted I really was. I grinned to myself as my head hit the pillow.

I was no longer freezing. Seth's voice had shot a current of heat through my bloodstream.

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**Review, please.**


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